In jet propelled watercraft, such as personal watercraft or jet propelled boats, the watercraft can be propelled in reverse by lowering a reverse gate behind the output of the water jet thus redirecting the jet toward the front of the watercraft which creates a thrust in the reverse direction. The reverse gate is actuated by a hand activated reverse gate operator which, when pulled, lowers the reverse gate behind of the water jet. By actuating a throttle operator of the watercraft, the amount of thrust generated by the jet propulsion system changes. Therefore, by controlling the position of the reverse gate and the amount of thrust generated by the jet propulsion system, and by actuating the reverse gate operator and the throttle operator respectively, the driver of the watercraft can control the amount of reverse thrust being generated.
The reverse thrust that can be generated when the reverse gate is lowered can also be used to decelerate the watercraft. In one method to decelerate the watercraft using the reverse gate, a deceleration lever is actuated by the driver in response to which the motor speed is reduced, when the motor speed is sufficiently low, the reverse gate pivots toward a fully lowered position, and once the reverse gate reaches the fully lowered position the motor speed is increased to generate a reverse thrust to decelerate the watercraft.
One inconvenience of the above method is that the watercraft decelerates in three stages of deceleration that are noticeable to the driver of the watercraft. The first stage of deceleration occurs when the motor speed is first reduced and results from friction between the hull and water and from the resistance of the water to being displaced by the hull. The second stage of deceleration occurs when the reverse gate starts to protrude below the hull and drags in the water. The third stage occurs once the reverse gate reaches the fully lowered position and the reverse thrust is applied by increasing the motor speed. Each time a stage is reached, the driver can feel the resulting sudden increase in deceleration.